To claim a book as "the lost link between the Lost World fiction of Haggard and the pulp of Rice Burroughs" (an assertion I read in the afterword, butTo claim a book as "the lost link between the Lost World fiction of Haggard and the pulp of Rice Burroughs" (an assertion I read in the afterword, but had thought myself whilst reading it - honest) is a bit of a huge claim unless you've read a lot of obscure Victorian fiction, but nevertheless there's a fascinating link here which sees literary and fantasy traditions shifting from a directly obvious upper- class based imperialist narrative towards something more fantastical and abstract (but also equally class based and imperialist if you scratch the surface meaning). One can see a lot of the elements from Haggard in this text from the "She-who-must-be-obeyed" central figure of Phorenice, (a deliciously vile and absurdly vain antagonist who is a pleasure to read even if she does key right into that latent fear of independent women) to the rather romanticised love story with a "native" and the inevitable final act wrangle for supremacy between two warring cultures.
But there's also none of the modern day exploration, the focus on British personalities, trophy hunting, discussions about "natives" or uncovering of ancient artefacts that might help modern society. Instead the action has a) been shifted to a completely fictitious society which is ostensibly known as Yucata, Egypt and Atlantis, but in reality could be anything abstract and fantastical, and in that sense is more representative of Mars in Burroughs Barsoom novels. Although unlike John Carter, this isn't a portal fantasy and our hero Deucalion is the ex-governor of Yucata. b) Except for William Morris this is the first time I've really read about magic and magical beasts that don't have a grounding in the real world. Travelling to Atlantis, Deucalian is attacked by a giant sea-snake, at one point Yucata is wiped out by an onslaught of strange mystical creatures that attack in consistent force and act like locusts. Elsewhere characters seem to act like Gods and wizards and witches, and whilst there's no definitive magic system in play the characters find it perfectly natural to drug people to sleep for 8 years with a spell or cast evil curses and enchantments on one another that ultimately end in citywide destruction.
All that aside, this is a really great book on its own terms. Whilst Cutliffe's grasp of narrative is somewhat haphazard at times, it's in the best pulp manner as he's determined to put our hero through the ringer, throwing one incident at him after another and in truth we never quite know where the story is headed, even if like the Titanic we know that Atlantis is eventually going down (and we can hazard a guess as to why quite early on). From the early sea-battles, to the delightful flippancy of the Queen, the inclusion of three potential romantic interests and plenty of derring-do as our hero decides even where his loyalties lie (perhaps my favourite scene in the book occurs between Phorenice and Deucalian as she continues to attempt to romance him, they are attacked by some locals who want this mad-queen gone. Phorenice springs into action and for a short while becomes action heroine of the story, to the surprise of reader and Deucalian alike, and for a moment he's dead horny for her in an otherwise fairly chaste tale).
It's a shame that this novel is almost as lost as the continent itself as this one's a keeper. Silly enough to be uproarious pulp fiction, but with a prose style more than good enough to make it a very welcome read. This isn't a highly literary novel, but it's a surprising one that I hadn't figured would exist pre-1900...more
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